February 28, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 28, 2018, yard stuff.
Five years ago today: February 28, 2014, 100% natural.
Nine years ago today: February 28, 2010, blurry as a Blues festival.
Random years ago today: February 28, 2012, my last sick day.

           Walking the dogs this morning found us out behind the church way up on Central Pike. In behind the last row of bushes, somebody dumped a complete set of fence panels identical to mine back at the cabin. I have no way to transport the 8-foot sections, but it looks to me like there are around 8 or 10 perfectly good treated fence posts. I salvaged four of them and the gate handle. The other hardware was mangled. This bored the blazes out of the dogs, but those posts sell for $9 to $12 each back home and I can easily carry all I can get inside the car. Ii would build a work shelter here, but these are 6-foot instead of 8-foot.

           With music, I tackled “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under”, quite the challenge for my limited harmony experience. While I can regularly sing a third above, I’m not finding it easy to lower that [note] by an octave when the others get uncomfortably high. I’m working around it by using that doop-doop background later in the tune over passages earlier in the lyrics. Including unexpected songs like this has been a traditional crowd-pleaser for me. I mean, how often do you hear a solo bassist do Shania Twain?

           I’m trying to watch “Hotel Rwanda” which I’m finding a little too based on fact to be all that entertaining. As a history documentary, it’s great, but I like history that points fingers. For example, the film shows UN troops standing around while there is shooting going on. The UN commander (Nick Nolte) says the line that defines the uselessness of the UN better than anything I’ve heard before.            When asked why his soldiers don’t do anything, says, “We’re peace-keepers, not peace-makers.”
Then pack them up and send them home, I say. It costs too much money to have a fully equipped adult men with automatic weapons standing around war zones playing soldier. And that is that. The Portuguese really did a number on Africa, similar to what Spain did in South America. I have my own theories why these two nations were so particularly evil with their colonies. Notice everything they touched is today apolitical hell-hole.

           Other European nations may have been cruel at first, but they seemed to have eventually learned better, with the exception of King Leopold of Belgium. Leo was some kind of degenerate, but since he didn’t kill his own people as did Stalin and Mao, the western media kind of left him alone, public-image-wise (there are still gold statues of Leo in Belgium). Fast forward to now, and the Europeans are taking on the American giant corporations. They are looking at requiring many electronics to have easily replaceable batteries. They also have to be cheap and I’d like it even more if they forced interchangeability. I’ve said this for years about car engine parts, or actually I said make any part you want of any quality, but the mounting brackets had to be universal. But close enough.
           And the Canadian government gets today’s booby prize. When their stock market crashes, they just shut it down. Sounds legit. While they are standing around shivering ans stomping, waiting for it to re-open, they can follow this link to hypnotize a chicken.

Picture of the day.
Christmas in Germany.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I finally have details on the team that went against the digital copyright trolls over melodies. A lawyer and a programmer got together and generated every possible 4-beat 12-note combination and patented them on MIDI. Then released them into Creative Commons. Brilliant. I bet the RIAA bunch have just shit their pants over that one.
           Have you seen the Citroën AMI? No, not the car from 1961, but the new electric? You might say they run around 43 miles per charge, around 28 mph, and around $6,600. Called everything from a washing-machine to a quadricycle and a “non-conformist mobility object”, they don’t require a driver’s license. But don’t worry, the USA will soon fix that. I wonder if they need to be registered?
           I’d buy one tomorrow, however they are only sold in Europe. The cars produced here seem to be either either too cheap or too expensive. Something tells me I’ll be glad I had those 220V outlets installed.

           It’s weird watching the European commercials because of the way they talk with their hands. The performance would be comparable to my 50cc Yamaha, but able to operate in all weather. It has a heater. As long as the windows roll down, I can use it in Florida. The body panels are the same on both sides, and front to back. The front door opens to the left, the passenger to the right. I see an upsurge in 12v fan sales if this ever reaches Miami.

           Another two hours on my music show is slowly revealing which tunes I can do in harmony. That’s correct, I only supposed I could manage these tunes, and I’ve never done harmony vocals on stage, either. Some tunes surprise me how well they sound with such treatment, it makes me wonder if the original singer might have been the one who objected. As I suspected, learning harmony without another singer is difficult. The Reb is the only one with the patience, but she is a professional singer and I can’t drag her down to my learning level. I have little option but to keep going over my song list until it clicks.

           Is is clear what I’m doing here? I’m playing the tunes through my PA system and punching them up with beefier bass lines and harmony vocals as much as possible. The rest of the time I’m playing the original bass lines a bit louder and faking it. I see already my old bingo headset is not going to work. This has too many trailing wires and was plainly not intended to be used by someone wearing a guitar strap.
           It comes back to me this was a hassle even at bingo, where I was sitting down. To grab a beer or a break, it was like taking off your shirt. And about the only thing that could now redeem millennials in my eyes is if one invents cords and cables that don’t tangle seemingly by themselves. I timed myself when I had to let the dog out. It took a full 90 seconds to take off the headset and unplug, and another 90 to get back. That is unacceptable. It is time to go wireless, I believe there was money set aside for that some years ago. It will still be there, so let’s go shopping.
           First stop, an advertised “2-way” PA system from Best Buy. They are liars, and anyway, what is “2-way”? You can tell by the picture the microphone needs a cable. What they mean is it works with Bluetooth (Office Libre has no trademark symbol). A similar system at Walmart has two handhelds. I need a headset. Here’s a Nady at GC for $99. That’s in my price range.

           I think I have a wireless bass system somewhere already, just never used it because it is one more thing that can go wrong. I’ve also got an ancient Radio Shack lapel mic I’ll check on the PA. Though not studio gear, some of those old electronics have remarkable clarity. They were called Lavalier mics or similar. I report that I have gotten further with my solo act in the past month than with any guitar player since May 2018. They just don’t have what it takes. The hardest lesson they learn is that Guitar Center can’t teach them talent, the second hardest is that it can’t teach them IQ either. You have to be able to memorize the circle of fifths to keep up with me.
           As for the easiest lesson, I know that one. I never overplay, I don’t even play loud, but unless you look like Taylor, guitarist learn they will never be the star on my stage. True, there are exceptions but they are unlikely to have me on their stage. Mutually exclusive musicianship, I’d call it. Most people stop thinking the minute they get behind a mic.

ADDENDUM
           YouTube is starting to really suck. I don’t mind a blurb at the end asking for money from people who pay for such things, but the videos are degenerating in to political ads and television style interruptions. I would rather watch items of lesser “quality” posted free. Worst ever are the pop-up ads that block your view. You not only have close them, but rewind to see what you missed. People who post this style of video are azzholes. If you want money, go get a job. I boycott any product advertised this way and would support some way of filtering out this annoyance. Read my lips, if you can’t post it free, don’t post it on youTube.

Last Laugh